SSD prices to rise — high demand, limited supply
As everyone wants to go faster, SSDs have been a staple of new builds as well as upgrades. While NAND manufacturing has matured significantly, the demand for SSDs exceeds their supply. Let’s not forget smartphones use NAND chips too in their storage, and as smartphone storage space grows, so does demand for NAND.
To put everything into perspective, in Q2 2016, 33.705 million SSDs were shipped, nearly 10 million more than in the same period last year. Worsening the problem is that the shift to 3D NAND manufacturing is not as fruitful as the companies expected, with their manufacturing capabilities delayed, thus unable to meet the ever growing demands for SSDs and smartphone storage.
As expected in such a situation, SSD prices have been on the rise. DRAMeXchange reported that the average price of MLC SSDs rose between 6-10%, while TLC SSDs rose 6-9%. These higher prices are bad for consumers, but helped to boost revenue for NAND manufacturers, who are raking in record revenues. It is expected for prices to come back down again once 3D NAND production kicks into high gear, but analysts are expecting prices to increase by 20-25% over the next few months.
SOURCE: TechPowerUp
Pokdepinion: You might want to get your SSD now before they become more expensive indefinitely.
